Tony%2520Lastoria Archive

Another Arizona Fall League season wraps up today as the championship game in winner-take-all fashion convenes with the Salt River Rafters squaring off with the Peoria Javelinas. The Indians have several Indians players involved with the Peoria team and chasing that championship, one of those being catcher Tony Wolters. The IBI's Tony Lastoria recently had a chance to sit down and talk to Wolters about his transition to catcher, his time in the AFL, plans for this offseason and more.

Coach's Corner is a regular premium piece here at IBI where we sit down with a coach in the Indians minor league system and really break down and discuss several players on the roster and talk about some of the philosophies surrounding the development of players. In this week’s edition, the IBI's Tony Lastoria had a chance to sit down with High-A Carolina pitching coach Steve Karsay and talked about Ryan Merritt's big year, how Adam Plutko has established himself as a prospect, Dylan Baker's tough year, the emergence of some pen prospects like Jacob Lee, Josh Martin and Ben Heller, and much more.

Over the past few weeks the IBI's Tony Lastoria has provided year-end pieces like this for rookie level Arizona, Short-A Mahoning Valley, Low-A Lake County and High-A Carolina. In today's second part of his Akron review, Tony sits down with Indians Director of Player Development Carter Hawkins to get the organization’s thoughts on the performance/development of the pitchers there such as Will Roberts, Joe Colon, Cody Anderson, Shawn Armstrong, Duke von Schamann and over a half a dozen others.

The countdown is on. At some point during the 2015 season, Indians shortstop and top prospect Francisco Lindor will make his long awaited Major League debut. The IBI's Tony Lastoria recently had a chance to sit down with Lindor to talk about his looming arrival in the big leagues, what he is doing to improve, get his thoughts on not getting a call to Cleveland and more.

Over the past few weeks the IBI's Tony Lastoria has provided year-end pieces like this for rookie level Arizona, Short-A Mahoning Valley, Low-A Lake County and High-A Carolina. Over the next few days he will wrap up this series with a look at the rest of the organization, and today takes a look at the Double-A Akron position players. Tony had a chance to sit down with Indians Director of Player Development Carter Hawkins to get the organization’s thoughts on the performance/development of the position players there such as Erik Gonzalez, Tyler Naquin, Anthony Gallas, Tony Wolters and over a half a dozen others.

It was a busy night Around the Farm for the Indians as players were in action in five different leagues. There were several outstanding performances with the bat, but the biggest of which came from the bats of the two players expected to fill the Indians shortstop position next season. The IBI's Tony Lastoria looks at the performances from Francisco Lindor, Jose Ramirez and several others...

The Indians are going to consider a lot of different possibilities this offseason as they look to make some changes to help the team be more consistent both defensively and offensively. While a lot of fans will focus on upgrading third base, the IBI's Tony Lastoria believes that the Indians may opt to stick with Chisenhall for another season to see what he does and also give hot prospect Giovanny Urshela time to transition into the big leagues. Tony also ponders where Jason Kipnis fits in the lineup, talks about the trio of big contract extensions from this past spring, and more!

Roberto Perez found his way onto the Indians roster this past season and appears to have the backup catching spot locked up going into the 2015 season. He is currently out in Puerto Rico playing winter ball and getting a ton of playing time, which should help him prepare and improve going into next season. The IBI's Tony Lastoria recaps his night and the rest of the players in the Indians system in his trip Around the Farm....

To say that 2014 was not kind to outfielder Jordan Smith is an understatement. Smith was a top prospect in the Indians organization who struggled with the bat all season and is currently out in Arizona participating in the Arizona Fall League. The IBI's Tony Lastoria recently sat down with him to get his thoughts on his 2014 season and his preparations for next year.

The IBI's Tony Lastoria has been providing year-end reviews of each of the Indians six affiliates with tons of comments on Indians players at that level. In today's second part of his Carolina review, Tony had a chance to sit down with Indians Director of Player Development Carter Hawkins to get the organization’s thoughts on the performance/development of some of the pitchers there such as Ryan Merritt, Adam Plutko, Shawn Morimando, Ben Heller, Mike Clevinger and over a half a dozen others.

Michael Brantley and Yan Gomes earned their first Silver Slugger awards on Thursday, and hopefully the first of many to come. The Yankees continue to look for ways to rid themselves of Alex Rodriguez during his ongoing saga of PED use. The IBI's Tony Lastoria provides the details on all of that and more as he fills in for Storylines...

Over the past few weeks the IBI's Tony Lastoria has provided year-end pieces like this for rookie level Arizona, Short-A Mahoning Valley and Low-A Lake County. Over the next few weeks he will wrap up this series with a look at the rest of the organization, starting today with High-A Carolina. In today's first part of his Carolina review, Tony had a chance to sit down with Indians Assistant Director of Player Development Carter Hawkins to get the organization’s thoughts on the performance/development of some of the position players there such as Yandy Diaz, Jeremy Lucas, LeVon Washington, Todd Hankins and over a half a dozen others.

MLBTradeRumors.com released their projections today for players around Major League Baseball who are eligible for salary arbitration. Over the years this has become a handy listing to help show committed payroll money for teams as they enter the offseason, and the IBI's Tony Lastoria takes a look at those figures and provides an update on the Indians payroll situation.

In this week’s first offseason edition of “Coach’s Corner”, a piece that will run every Wednesday for the next several weeks, the IBI's Tony Lastoria had a chance to sit down with Double-A Akron manager Dave Wallace out in Arizona and talk about some Indians players participating in the Arizona Fall League, other winter ball leagues and from his Akron team this past season. They talked about the exciting year defensive strides from Tyller Naquin and Tony Wolters, the struggles of Jordan Smith, Cody Anderson and Joe Wendle, how close Will Roberts and Shawn Armstrong may be to the big leagues, and much more.

Back on July 12th the Indians made a small trade to acquire left-handed pitcher Nick Maronde from the Angels for cash. It was not a headline making trade, but it is one that could help the Indians pitching depth in 2015. After a tough year in the Angels system, he regrouped with the Indians this season and is pitching in the Arizona Fall League. The IBI's Tony Lastoria recently had a chance to sit down and talk to him about his season and his trade to the Indians...

It was a light night on Monday across the Indians system as only a handful of players were in action. Monday is a typical off day in the Caribbean Leagues, though a few games were still played. The IBI's Tony Lastoria takes us Around the Farm to recap the action, and he notes some good showings from the likes of Francisco Lindor, Grant Sides and Tyler Naquin.

In a perfect world, the Indians would go out and sign Max Scherzer, Victor Martinez and Nelson Cruz and then go out and win the World Series in 2015. But that's not how things work in Cleveland, so as hard as it may be, as fans we often need to take a collective step back and look at things realistically. The IBI's Tony Lastoria attempts to do just that as he looks at all of the strengths and weaknesses of the Indians roster and what they may ultimately do to shore up those weaknesses this offseason.

Tyler Naquin had his first really good game in the Dominican Winter League, Giovanni Soto continues to rack up zeroes in the Puerto Rico Winter League and Giovanny Urshela continues to play well out in the Venezuela Winter League. The IBI's Tony Lastoria recaps their performances as well as several others as he takes us Around the Farm in winter ball on Sunday....

This is the second part of the two-part 2014 Indians Instructional League wrapup here at the IBI. The first part covered the arms that the IBI's Tony Lastoria saw and provided lots of information and insight into what was an impressive collection of arms in Arizona. This piece focuses in on the position players, a place where the Indians also have an abundant amount of talent, and Tony provides all kinds of news, insight and more info on players like Bradley Zimmer, Bobby Bradley, Yu-Cheng Chang, Li- Jen Chu, Mike Papi and lots more.

The Indians fall instructional league wrapped up a little over two weeks ago. Unlike years past, this was one of the more interesting programs due to the amount of talent the Indians had on display for five weeks out in Arizona. The IBI's Tony Lastoria spent some time out in Arizona for Instructs and shares some first impressions, thoughts and insights on young arms like Justus Sheffield, Sam Hentges, Grant Hockin, Jared Robinson, Micah Miniard and several others, as well as several injury and surgery updates to other pitchers.

Available IBI Books

The 2014 Cleveland Indians Baseball Insider book featuring the Indians' Top 100 Prospects and more is now available. Also, previous editions from 2008-2012 are also available at a discounted rate. Just click on the book image for more information. Thanks again for all the support!